Just as predicted, Joss Whedon’s making a lot more significant changes to Justice League than originally reported, including a restructuring and new ending.
Here’s the original way The Hollywood Reporter described the changes: “Stepping in to shepherd the movie through post and the shooting of some additional scenes will be Joss Whedon.”
This was back in May. We’re now in August. According to /Film, the film, which apparently remains on target for a November release, has now scrapped its original ending, too.
I pretty much understood that the second the opportunity arose for Joss Whedon to jump on this ambitious project—who cares if it’s the flailing DCEU or not, Justice League is a major property to play with—he was going to change it into Joss’ vision. I mean, I think most of us knew that. But then, we also assumed that he’d try to be a little more respectful of the film, considering that his opportunity came from Zack Snyder’s tragic loss.
The problem therein is that Joss Whedon isn’t any more qualified to direct the film than post-Batman v Superman Snyder. And to really add fuel to the fire, bad report after bad report came out following the shake-up. These reports included a closer examination of Joss Whedon’s absolutely terrible Wonder Woman script and basic confirmation that he was re-doing a significant portion of the movie.
Now, let’s check out the newest trailer again:
Combined with the “lighter tone” we all knew was coming and the fact that Whedon “completely removed” the original ending … the transformation has been completed.
Most likely, what we’ll be watching in November is The Avengers but with Aquaman and like an hour of CGI red skies in the background. It seems as though Whedon holds a grudge against cliffhangers and didn’t like that aspect of the film. Again, I always have to add this disclaimer: I’m not saying Joss Whedon can’t pull off a great film here with these characters that I love. I just don’t appreciate the smokescreen. If anything, they should’ve banked on Wonder Woman and said they were adding more scenes with her in it.
(Unrelated, but stay tuned for my in-depth analysis of the much bigger PR problem that Warner Bros. has been having since, like, The Iron Giant.)
Related Story: The Last Jedi: How everyone copes with Han Solo’s death
Though, depending on how much you trust Ben Affleck, he admitted that Justice League “is an interesting product of two directors, both with kind of unique visions, both with really strong takes.”
So now you need to ask yourself: Does “interesting product” translate to a good, satisfying film that makes one billion dollars at the box office and gets everyone off the DCEU’s back? We will see on Nov. 17 when Justice League hits theaters.